Markji wrote:

earthmansurfer wrote:Lin sure looked nice last night. Harden was the best player on the court but Lin sure led that team. 12pts, 8assists, 4stl, 4TO - I'll take that. Some incredible passes. His contract is already looking like a bargain when you look at what everyone else got. I know I know, haters will now say he has Harden on that team. Nice Job Dolan.

Nice to see Dwight lose.

It didn't take any time for Lin and Harden to gel. Did they even have a practice together. We keep making excuses for our team to gel....for Amare and Melo, etc

holfresh wrote:Ha...Beating the Pistons and winning an NBA game now means a team has gelled....

No, but is a step in the right direction, especially considering that many predicted Houston to be the worst team in the NBA this year.

As opposed to say holding the ball, pounding it then forcing a shot. For those who were not sure thats not making a play.

Knicks havent played yet and this season sucks already.

fishmike wrote:crap on this all you want and the Melo-ites will spin this but the Rockets did what I hoped the Knicks would do. I was excited about this year because we had a big veteran frontcourt to go with a dynamic young backcourt (Lin + Shump) but the Rockets saw that value and we didnt. Lin and Harden is a hell of a good backcourt. Lin makes plays. Plain and simple. He's a difference maker and play makers in the NBA are a truely valuable commodity.

As opposed to say holding the ball, pounding it then forcing a shot. For those who were not sure thats not making a play.

Knicks havent played yet and this season sucks already.

fishmike wrote:crap on this all you want and the Melo-ites will spin this but the Rockets did what I hoped the Knicks would do. I was excited about this year because we had a big veteran frontcourt to go with a dynamic young backcourt (Lin + Shump) but the Rockets saw that value and we didnt. Lin and Harden is a hell of a good backcourt. Lin makes plays. Plain and simple. He's a difference maker and play makers in the NBA are a truely valuable commodity.

As opposed to say holding the ball, pounding it then forcing a shot. For those who were not sure thats not making a play.

Knicks havent played yet and this season sucks already.

Bingo!! I said on this site and realgm(and they hated me over there for it) that the rockets and thunder made a good trade.. for both teams.. Harden is a beast but on top of that it gave the rockets a solid back court, now they are set in the back court and at center with young, improving talent... this is how you build a team...

But hey, I have my tv tuned into the rockets and nuggets game and I can follow them, I enjoyed watching them last night.. Knicks are still my team, but now they have to share my attention... thanks dolan and carmelo..

fishmike wrote:crap on this all you want and the Melo-ites will spin this but the Rockets did what I hoped the Knicks would do. I was excited about this year because we had a big veteran frontcourt to go with a dynamic young backcourt (Lin + Shump) but the Rockets saw that value and we didnt. Lin and Harden is a hell of a good backcourt. Lin makes plays. Plain and simple. He's a difference maker and play makers in the NBA are a truely valuable commodity.

As opposed to say holding the ball, pounding it then forcing a shot. For those who were not sure thats not making a play.

Knicks havent played yet and this season sucks already.

Another here who agrees with you. I can see it already. "The reason Lin is playing well is because he has Harden to take the pressure off him." AND "The reason Harden is playing well is because he has an ok player in Lin next to him." Somehow, Lin's great play the coming season will now be attributed to Harden, I just have a feeling. What a team we could have had with Lin in the backcourt. Well, now Stat is hurt but we would have at least had Lin's offensive production. I also can't believe Dolan couldn't see Lin was a difference maker. My bet is he actually did, but took the whole Houston bid personally.

Loved Lin's quote after the game. "He (Harden) is the best player I've ever played with" That didn't take long.

AnubisADL wrote:Houston is going straight to the the lottery. Anyone believing otherwise is delusional.

If it takes Harden dropping 3o+ pts and 10+ asts to beat the lowly Pistons I see the L's racking up quickly.

I will be checking out Houston games for Harden since I like to watch tall guards with skills.

Would you make the same argument when Knicks beat the Pistons when Melo scores 30+ pts and 10+ rebounds?

Rockets have to really ascess what they are doing. They moved pieces that were in teh rotation and have work to do.

Harden and lin are both 23 years old. Nobody said they were world beaters or a playoff team yet. The COULD be a 7th or 8th seed. Just like we were.

I watched the 2nd half and Harden was awesome. 37 pts with 12 dimes is a nice stat. For those looking for Linsanity to continue and anything less offer amo to crap on him is missing the point. His cap hold for the Rockets is 8mm a year and he is not far off being that kind of a player.

Regarding Clyde and Earl the Pearl those who saw it, or read enough about it did understand it was not a perfect marriage. Earl was never the same player for the knicks as he was in Baltimore. He had some injuries but the simple reason was he did not have the ball as much because Clyde was the primary ball handler for the team. Earl "went off" when they needed him to but he was not the star feature player. They worked with it.

Is Lin and Harden the next clyde and Earl? Or the next Deron and JJ? Or the Next Brewer and Felton?

They played well last nite earning a road victory with little time for preperation. Lin need not be "linsanity" for them to succeed. In fact, him and the rockets would be better off with games like last nite.

We'll watch the games to see how they fair. First 10 games of the season is very hard to watch. Ugly games. PHX-SF was ugly last nite. Warriors shot 40% and PHX 38%! Ugly!